Japanese

April 29, 2015

Japanese is an East Asian language spoken by about 125 million. Little is known of the language’s prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3^rd century recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial texts did not appear until the 8^th century.

Although the language has no inherent relationship with Chinese, it makes extensive use of Chinese characters and borrows a large portion of Chinese vocabulary. Since it does not follow the traditional Latin alphabet, it can be a tough language for Westerners to learn.

Learning Japanese opens up many opportunities internationally and contributes to the understanding of other cultures. Universities, schools and employers all look favourably upon the skill of being able to communicate in another language.